NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has appointed the director of a progressive Jewish group, Phylisa Wisdom of the New York Jewish Agenda, to head his Office to Combat Antisemitism, a Mamdani spokesperson said on Wednesday.

The office, housed in City Hall, coordinates the response to antisemitism in city agencies.

Mamdani’s predecessor, Eric Adams, established the office in May 2025, and Adams’s appointee Rabbi Moshe Davis led the body since Mamdani’s inauguration last month.

Mamdani’s potential appointee to the office had been the subject of speculation for weeks.

Wisdom and the New York Jewish Agenda are progressive, but support a Jewish Israel, putting them closer to New York’s Jewish center than Mamdani, who has identified as an anti-Zionist. The group identifies as Zionist, and is opposed to the Netanyahu government, as well as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign targeting Israel, which Mamdani supports.

Under Wisdom’s leadership, the New York Jewish Agenda has spoken out against antisemitism on both the left and right. After a pro-Hamas protest outside a synagogue last month, for example, the New York Jewish Agenda decried the rally as “unambiguous and unacceptable antisemitism,” while Mamdani spoke out against the protest, but did not mention antisemitism.

Wisdom’s appointment could lead to tensions with some Hasidic communities,........

© The Times of Israel